The Ross Valley School District implements power saving technology including the use of solar power. Solar power not only reduces our facilities' carbon footprint but also saves the district money. We are designing and buliding all new construction to be energy efficienct. For example, the new White Hill buildings are fully insulated to help reduce heating and cooling costs.

When the existing solar energy system was installed, it was paid for by contributions from the 1999 Facility Bond and grants from the California Energy Commission and PG&E.  All school sites were evaluated for solar energy potential.   White Hill, Hidden Valley, and Manor were selected for the initial installation of Photo Voltaic panels.  The systems are designed to produce electricity in a quantity as near to the demand as possible, as the ultimate goal is to negate the need to purchase energy from the utilities. To this end, the system design at each site took into account many factors including; the amount of sun versus shade, the amount of electricity needed, and the structural capacity of the site to support the panels.

The solar panels include monitoring systems that measure the amount of electricity being generated by the solar system and the amount of energy being taken from or sent to the utility.  The monitoring system contains a student learning component, allowing students to access the data.